Female Masculinity and the Business of Emotions in Tokyo

Female Masculinity and the Business of Emotions in Tokyo investigates the novel ＂emotion business＂ of dansō escorting as a phenomenon emerging between gender performativity and pop-culture, commodified relationships and the wish for self-expression.

Fanasca documents the dreams, ambitions and fears of young crossdresser escorts negotiating their identity with and within the Japanese society, as well as those of crossdresser escorts’ clients: women looking for the perfect man and the opportunity to experience emotions. Combining anthropological, sociological and gender studies theories with an ethnographic approach, Fanasca argues that dansō crossdressing is the tool used by a sector of Japanese women to resist the heteronormative and patriarchal society and its expectations, while reinventing themselves and their identities looking for self-actualization.

Female Masculinity and the Business of Emotions Tokyo is an interdisciplinary work which will interest both scholars and students of Japanese studies, gender studies, and anthropology.

Marta Fanasca is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Bologna and a Research Fellow at KU Leuven. For her research, she worked herself as a dansō (FtM crossdressing) escort. Her articles have appeared in Asian Anthropology and Girlhood Studies. She is also a freelance translator from Japanese.